The ancient world gave us a great gift of sacred knowledge. That knowledge is not accessed through intellect, but through a deeper stage of awareness that seems almost out of place in today's world. However, today's world...seems out of place.

8.16.2006

Playing GOD

There is much debate these days about genetic research, cloning, organ regeneration, and the many future benefits of gene mapping. Despite the hope of curing many illnesses that have harmed or killed thousands or millions, many see these reaches into the very genes of the human as 'playing GOD.'In a recent conversation this was said to me:"I just don't think we, man, should be playing GOD."Playing GOD?When we find ourselves face to face with new scientific frontiers we must ask ourselves if these practices are ethical. From a religious standpoint, it can be difficult to judge if they violate our beliefs because many of these issues may not have existed in any form, and therefore, may not have been addressed in any clear way in a designated text or medium. We are left to judge for ourselves or leave it to those we place at the head of our belief system.From a personal standpoint I cannot see how we can place genetic research on the same level as creation itself. Playing GOD? Clearly some have forgotten the power of the Biblical GOD. He is said to have created man from the dust of the earth. There was no life and then there was life. He then breathed life into man.Compare this to the most extreme of genetics, which even most scientists would agree is unethical: cloning. We take life and from that we harvest new life. Much like cell division in the human body, this process is not creating something from nothing, or more correctly, creating the animate from the inanimate. We can see that in the case of genetic research, man is not playing GOD, he is just playing human in a different way.Whether or not these practices violate our belief systems is another point altogther. Far too often the only opposition that I hear raised is that man is playing GOD. Clearly those that like saying that need a refresher course on creation.As to whether any or all of this genetic debate is right or wrong..... I leave it up to you to decide.